Aries
by Ellie-ellie
Summary: An injured adventurer, set on exploring the depths of the Las Noches Jungles, finds himself in a local village under the care of a special healer : TSUBAKIORIHIME drabbles
1. The Meeting

**Aries**

**Warning:** all of these are drabbles. That means they will not have a very high word count. Also, the characters may come across as OOC (somewhat) because they are being based after zodiac signs. I chose ones that I felt fit the characters best, which means they do not match the official birthdays that they were given. If you are okay with all of the above, then I hope you enjoy the story.

**xoxo**

She'd lived in the village her whole life, surrounded by the same people she had known since she was born. She had never left, her brother not even allowing her to leave when he went into the nearby town to get supplies and necessities. He claimed it was too dangerous for a girl like her to go into such a busy city. She never complained though, she enjoyed the village and the jungle around it. All her herbs for healing were in the jungle, all her friends were in the village, and her brother (who was more of a father) bought her everything she could ever desire.

Content, that's how she would describe her life. She was content with her life.

Their house was small, most of it dedicated to storing medicines and a large table used to heal people on. Some people called her a witch, the ones that Sora would bring in for her to heal, but she just ignored them, or at least she tried. She just wanted to be helpful, to save them, but they only looked at her with fear.

The village people didn't mind her though; they had always said she was a goddess. It wasn't true; but, she couldn't deny that despite her tendency to be clumsy, and the amount of dangerous situations she had found herself in, she had always turned out okay. Maybe she was just protected by the gods and goddesses because of what she did to help people.

Or maybe she was just lucky.

She opened the door at the sound of a horse carriage approaching the house. Through the trees, she could see her brother speeding ahead as fast as the horses would run down the path. Other villagers had stepped out of their houses, always curious as to whether or not the healing girl would use her magic on another outsider.

It looked like she would be healing someone today.

She walked back inside, clearing a pathway for her brother to walk through, assuming he would have to carry the person as well. He only brought people to her when there was no one else to save them. They made good money from it, usually. The wealthy would pay large sums for her to heal members of their family (though it was only pocket change to them). Even without payment though, Sora pitied a lot of poor people who couldn't afford any medical care, and he'd sometimes bring them along free of charge.

She never minded.

"Orihime!" she heard him shout, his voice sounding desperate and urgent. "This one's really bad," he opened the door with his free hand, the other one looped under the arm of a man. A different villager was holding the injured man's feet up, helping Sora carry him inside. "I don't know if he'll make it."

He always said that, but no one had died under her care yet.

She waited patiently for them to set the man on the table, her fingers fiddling with her burnt orange locks as she assessed the damage the man had taken. He had large gashes everywhere from what seemed to be the claws of a jungle cat. His clothes were soaked in blood, another large gash going down the entire side of his leg.

"He's lost a lot of blood. A large panther attacked him; he killed it and then walked to the nearest town for help. Luckily I was there… no one would have been able to heal him."

"He'll make it," Orihime said confidently, pulling out some different herbs from different jars. "We've seen worse. He wasn't with anyone?"

"Not that I saw."

She leaned over, reaching up to remove a cloth that covered his face before a hand shot up and grabbed her wrist. She looked over to see him awake, his eyes almost as black as his spiked hair.

"Don't touch it," he ordered, releasing her wrist as his hand fell back against his side.

All she could do was nod in response, the shock still not worn off, before she continued working.

**xoxo**

**Well, I've never seen an OrihimexTsubaki pairing before, so this will be interesting. In case you didn't get it, he's the injured man. This didn't really turn out as I hoped it would, but now I can actually start developing a plot (the major part was getting him into the village)! Please review :)**


	2. Getting to Know You

He refused to pull down the cloth covering his face, only adding to the mysterious air he had around him. He didn't answer many of her questions, revealing only that his name was Tsubaki and he was on a 'quest'. It seemed like a relative term, considering he said he didn't know what he was questing for, only that he had to complete it.

That or he just didn't want to tell her.

Despite his lack of interest in revealing anything about himself, Orihime soon discovered that he wasn't shy, or quiet, or anything closely resembling quiet. Whenever Sora wasn't around he was constantly insulting her, teasing her, and giving her a hard time for whatever she was doing. He brought up every flaw he could pick out, questioned her unmercifully about her life (even the most private details), and even ventured into insulting her lack of ability to socialize on a personal level.

In depth questions coming from the man who would only reveal his name… charming.

"There is nothing wrong with my taste in food," Orihime defended, a pout setting on her lips. "In fact, my brother compliments me all the time on my cooking."

"Oh, your brother? Are your sure his taste buds just haven't died from eating such horrible shit. I mean seriously… do you even know what you're feeding me? This is a cookie with wasabi paste on it, and it tastes horrible."

"I give them out to the other villagers! They always tell me how delicious they are!"

"Have you ever _seen_ the other villagers eating them?" he questioned, her mind imagining a smirk appearing on his face. She couldn't actually see his expression, but she could tell by the way he moved his eyebrows, or the way cloth moved against his face, what kind of expression he was making.

"Well… no… but… well… I'm sure I have at some point! I… I… I just don't pay attention…" her look became downcast as she started fiddling with the hem of her blue dress. "But everyone always seemed so happy I just assumed they liked them but maybe they didn't and now I feel like I've been forcing that food down their throats all this time and it's all my fault and I should go apologize but that's so embarrassing how do you apologize for cooking bad food… oh goodness I really wish…"

"Woah, take a breather there. Seriously, you're tiring my ears out."

She looked up at him, his piercing black eyes never giving her the slightest hint of what he was thinking.

He'd told her multiple times she was like reading a book, and then would insult her about being to open to the people around her.

She just wanted a friend; she couldn't help it.

She leaned back up against the chair she was sitting in along the side of his bed, her eyes deciding to survey his bandages in hopes of distracting her from her new found discovery. Was he being serious about her cookies not tasting good? Everyone always complimented them…

"Are you checking me out?" he questioned, the cloth covering his face shifting in the way that made her imagine him smirking. "I know we've been spending a lot of time together, but you can't just fall for every man who waltzes in here and gives you the time of day. Though I can't say that I mind, you are very pretty…"

"You've been here almost a week!" she defended, her cheeks blushing a bright shade of red, "And… and I wasn't checking you out! I was looking at your bandages and deciding whether or not they needed to be changed, or if you were ready to discharge!"

"Oh, I see," he responded, his voice clearly showing disbelief. "It's surprising how quick it healed. I mean, my blood was low and the cuts were practically to the bone, and now they've almost vanished completely. Shocking, really."

She was happy he had changed the subject, but she had hoped it would be to a better one than her healing abilities. Talking about them usually led to people calling her a witch, or saying she was practicing some kind of evil lost art.

She didn't have too long to think about it though before she felt a quick 'bonk' on the top of her head.

"Hey, woman, stop looking so downcast. It was a compliment."

She looked up at him, his dark eyes still not revealing anything to her, but her grey ones revealed everything to him.

He had made her very happy.

**xoxo**

**I really didn't expect anyone to read this… but I'm happy some people are :) I really don't know how to characterize Tsubaki as a grown man considering half of his character is beating Orihime as a fairy when he gets angry… I can't really have him do that when he's an actual human! Haha, hence the bonk. Hm, well if you like it, review it :) It's encouraging!**


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